Hello

That you are visiting this site means you know my name, but I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my life's journey.

It may be longer than most, but it's been an interesting ride so far, let's get started!

My Journey... so far...

I have been on a wild ride since I fell and broke my back on a building site.

Wait!

I am getting a little ahead of myself and we can get back to that. I guess first I should explain my journey to that point briefly. I left school at the age of 14 and went into full time work for my Father, he was and still is a builder but at this time was mainly working at installing uPVC windows & doors.

At the age of 18 I had learned; carpentry, plastering and had plenty of experience with removing old windows and doors and replacing them with new uPVC versions. Building was really taking off and so my Father gave me my own crew to run, consisting of three to four members that would change depending on the job requirements.

From 18 until 28 I ran that team, to give an idea of what that looked like, for the most part the job would involve being in a different person's home approximately every two days. As we would be removing their existing windows, doors etc... and replacing them. Needless to say this was detailed work, which involved skills in communicating with the home owners on how the work would be carried out, agreeing on a suitable external and internal finish and as with all things in life being able to troubleshoot problems that could arise, such as mismeasurements by the surveyor, complications unique to the structure of the home, sourcing unexpected materials, providing extra skilled craftsmen such as electricians and plumbers and at times dealing with difficult customer interactions.

This ended with the fall from a building site I had mentioned at the start, as this is where I feel my real journey began.

This had an enormous impact on my life, my role in society which had always been clear was now lost!

· How can I care for my family?

· What is my place in the world?

· Who am I now?

Those are just some of the questions that plagued me. It was a dark time dealing with the pain and coming to grips with the naked truth, I would never be able to build again. I later learned of a course with the NTDI (National Training and Development Institute) called Fresh Start. It was designed for people who through either accident or illness could not return to their previous occupation.

I now knew that my path ahead could not be the physical kind, so I began exploring other opportunities and attended an opening evening at the University College of Cork for Computer Science. Here I met a professor who invited me to attend a lecture on Java programming.

I was fascinated, the professor was amazing, engaging and brought the work to life. When I realised that anyone can attend the lectures at any time, I never missed another! I purchased the materials (textbooks and software) and followed the syllabus. The professor was delighted in my enjoyment of his lessons and corrected the projects as if I was a registered student. (A total legend!)

At this time I owned a rare smartphone and a mobile game developer, connected to an online programmers forum I had started to frequent, approached me to do some bug testing on my device. I agreed and my curiosity drove me to request they send me the editor used to build the game world. I had by this time gained an understanding of scripting and used this to create an expansion aside from the main game they sold. Looking at the game editor and possibilities with fresh eyes I also developed a means to include random combat encounters. The developers were so impressed they began to sell it online!

This success proved to me one thing; I did have a brain! (I mean academically here, as I had left school at age 14 this was news to me.)

I started looking at courses that had high employability rates and found Business Information Systems (BIS) at the U.C.C was recommended. I made an interview to speak with the person responsible for allowing mature students to attend the course.

They were brutally honest with me explaining that the course was highly sought after, as I had no prior life experience and not even an education at the second level they would bin my application at the first draft.

I left the meeting obviously disheartened, but determined and went back to my instructors at the NTDI for advice. In the centre they had the ability to administer training and take computer-based exams for the Microsoft office suite. I approached the director of the institute and they allowed me access to the training manuals with the understanding that as long as I could teach myself, I would be allowed to take an exam.

As long as I continued to pass, I would be allowed to take another.

I was the first person in the institute to finish all the modules at the expert level and obtain a M.O.U.S. (Microsoft Office User Specialist) Master certificate.

I then learned of a 2-year diploma that was taught by the instructors of the BIS course at the UCC called Applied Business Computing, where if you graduated at the top of the class, you would be awarded a placement on the full BIS course!

I applied and with the MOUS certificate, the work done on the Java course and the video game expansion I had made, was able to secure a place!

2 years later I graduated with the highest scores the course had ever had and created a second video game expansion that was more popular than the first!

During my time on the course, I realised that the BIS route was not right for me, I felt that too much emphasis was placed on how to squeeze customers for profit. It was completely against my personal ethos and I simply could not continue. I next sought and won a placement at the Cork Institute of Technology for a four year honours degree in Multimedia.

This was an amazing time, I discovered photography which is still a great passion, met some remarkable people and was able to participate in many group projects, workshops and exhibitions.

For the summer of my third year I worked to gain experience in the DEIS department of CIT which is their E-Learning section. It was great, there was work from lots of businesses starting through Enterprise Ireland who needed Multimedia direction and advice.

In my third year I created an online video game version of Jib Jab, allowing the user to place cropped heads onto fighting characters that when defeated would reveal a message to the winner. The idea was a free messaging service that anyone could use as it was funded by discreet advertising placed in the background. An external examiner from industry was brought in to correct and was blown away! I can still recall the pride of my lecturers when I came back to start year four.

During my final year, my wife who was pregnant with twins, had been in hospital due to complications from 14 weeks into the pregnancy. At week 30 an infection spread rampantly through her system. While both Georgina and Nathan were born alive, Georgina was not able to survive and we held her together until she passed.

I deferred my final year after speaking with the College and spent time with my family, after burying our daughter. Then a few months later my son Nathan stopped breathing. We got him to an emergency doctor and from there he was rushed to the CUH (Cork University Hospital). They did not know what was wrong and he was placed on a ventilator and rushed to Dublin.

After two weeks, they were still not sure exactly what had happened but diagnosed Nathan with sleep apnoea. As he could stop breathing at any time, he required constant watching and as he was in a weak state had to be isolated as much as possible from the other children in the family. My wife and I took shifts in caring for him. Unfortunately, there was no way to get back to College and so I missed finalising my degree. Even though I had already completed everything to the final end of year project and all but the last three months of the past four years, there were no options to continue. The entire course would need to be started from the beginning.

This was bitter sweet as my next step of moving to a Master’s Degree was no longer possible, but on the other hand my son Nathan was improving, due to our continued efforts at home. (Today Nathan is really healthy and perfectly fine and while I may be biased can tell you he has grown into an amazing person that I could not be prouder of!)

With no degree I began to search for a job. I obtained work from SECAD the (South East Cork Area Development) as a web-designer working for charities within the area. This was a great year and I really enjoyed meeting the unique people, hearing their stories and helping them tell others.

After this I worked for a year with Hewitt’s College under a government scheme as a multimedia manager, using the skills I had learned. The Principal was an amazing person and it was a pleasure to work for them.

I could not find more work after this point; it was hard at this time and so when the opportunity to take a course offered by Future People came about, I jumped at the chance. The goal was to obtain a C.C.N.A. (Cisco Certified Network Associate) which I did. The exams are taken at registered computer centres. I sat down took the test and was delighted to see 1000 out of 1000 greet me on completion.

After this I began to work at Shopify and what a life changer that has been!
Finally a company that I can get behind, somewhere where customers are placed first. Going to work every day and helping merchants has been so rewarding for me. I have loved every moment.

It was also the catalyst for a huge personal breakthrough, let me explain.

Throughout my personal journey as you have seen while reading, I have worked with my Father, managed my own crew, submerged myself deeply into academic learning, however this was my first time having to deal with a supervisor and any kind of a quality system of work. Up until this point I did what worked well for me and never had an issue.

I can remember storming through support tickets solving problems very logically but my lead had something they were trying to teach me yet it was not getting through. This caused frustration to my lead and to me, as I was failing.

It was at this time I learned I am on the autistic spectrum, it was a moment of clarity that both my lead at the time and I will never forget. Understanding yourself is such an important thing and this was a huge piece that had until now been missing. With the insight this gave me and the context for my lead it started a collaboration of ideas that helped me to improve in leaps and bounds!

Since that time, I have worked with three other leads, my work and understanding of the advisor role has deepened and improved in ways I could never have expected.

I stand today ready to start a new chapter in my journey and I for one cannot wait to see where it takes me!

Why apply for the Account integrity team?

Great question, and the most meaningful answer is that I am passionate about it!

That passion stems from three main areas:

Protecting our merchants, safeguarding their security as I would my own, helping them resolve problems quickly and in that way helping them build their own empires with full trust in Shopify.
Protecting our product, I believe Shopify to be outstanding, truly important to the lives of so many people already on the platform and the many, many people who will be helped when they join in the future!
Being a part of educating and expanding our knowledge so we have that protection always.

I find it a fascinating area of study. The team is constantly working to move forward, improve, adapt, learn and evolve.

The role has a great aspect for detective work which I love.

There is so much to learn and so many ways to make an impact. It is a position where I can thrive.

I would love the opportunity offered here, to take my next step forward in Shopify!